unloosed out on the desert, with
Jack riding free and the fingers of the ancestor-devil on the reins. John
Wingfield, Sr. called in the general manager.

"You are in charge until I return," he said; and a few hours later he was
in a private car, bound for Little Rivers.

PART III

HE FINDS HIS PLACE IN LIFE

XXXV

BACK TO LITTLE RIVERS

As with the gentle touch of a familiar hand, the ozone of high altitudes
gradually and sweetly awakened Jack. The engine was puffing on an
upgrade; the car creaked and leaned in taking a curve. Raising the shade
of his berth he looked out on spectral ranges that seemed marching and
tumbling through dim distances. With pillows doubled under his head he
lay back, filling sight and mind with the indistinctness and spacious
mystery of the desert at night; recalling his thoughts with his last
view of it over two months ago in the morning hours after leaving El
Paso and seeing his future with it now, where then he had seen his
future with the store.

"Think of old Burleigh raising oranges! I am sure that the trees will be
well trimmed," he whispered. "Think of Mamie Devore in the thick of the
great jelly competition, while the weight of Joe Mathewson's shoulders
starts a spade into the soil as if it were going right to the centre of
the earth. Why, Joe is likely to get us into international difficulties
by poking the ribs of a Chinese ancestor! Yes--if we don't lose our
Little Rivers; and we must not lose it!"

The silvery face of the moon grew fainter with the coming of a ruddier
light; the shadows of the mountains were being etched definitely on the
plateaus that stretched out like vast floors under the developing glow
of sunrise; and the full splendor of day had come, with its majestic
spread of vision.

"When Joe sees that he will feel so strong he will want to get out and
carry the Pullman," Jack thought. "But Mamie will not let him for fear
that he will overdo!"

How slow the train seemed to travel! It was a snail compared to Jack's
eagerness to arrive. He was inclined to think that P.D., Wrath of God,
and Jag Ear were faster than through expresses. He kept inquiring of the
conductor if they were on time, and the conductor kept repeating that
they were. How near that flash of steel at a bend around a tongue of
chaotic rock, stretching out into the desert sea, with its command to man
to tunnel or accept a winding path for his iron horse! How long in coming
to